Related papers: Running Decompactification, Sliding Towers, and th…
Our current best guess for a unified theory of gravitation and quantum field theory (string theory) generically predicts a set of requirements for a consistently quantized theory, the Swampland criteria. Refined versions of these criteria…
In string field theory an infinitesimal background deformation is implemented as a canonical transformation whose hamiltonian function is defined by moduli spaces of punctured Riemann surfaces having one special puncture. We show that the…
We hypothesize that the vacuum is spontaneously shifted from the self-dual point in the moduli space, at which all dimensions are compact, and that the true vacuum results from the decompactification of the four space-time dimensions and…
In this paper we conduct a general, model-independent analysis of the running of gauge couplings within closed string theories. Unlike previous discussions in the literature, our calculations fully respect the underlying modular invariance…
It would be extremely useful to know whether a particular low energy effective theory might have come from a compactification of a higher dimensional space. Here, this problem is approached from the ground up by considering theories with…
Reheating in string compactifications is generically driven by the decay of the lightest modulus which produces Standard Model particles, dark matter and light hidden sector degrees of freedom that behave as dark radiation. This common…
We consider the decay of cosmic strings that are trapped in the false vacuum in a theory of scalar electrodynamics in 3+1 dimensions. We restrict our analysis to the case of thin-walled cosmic strings which occur when large magnetic flux…
We examine the vacuum structure of 4D effective theories of moduli fields in spacetime compactifications with quantized background fluxes. Imposing the no-scale structure for the volume deformations, we numerically investigate the…
String theory is canonically accompanied with a space-time interpretation which determines S-matrix-like observables, and connects to the standard physics at low energies in the guise of local effective field theory. Recently, we have…
We motivate a relation between dark energy and the scale of new physics in weakly coupled string theory. This mixing between infrared and ultraviolet physics leads to a unique corner for real-world phenomenology: barring fine-tunings, we…
We use recently obtained 2-loop string coupling constants to analyze a class of string models based on orbifold compactification. Assuming weak coupling at the string scale and single-scale unification leads to restrictions on the spectrum…
Superstring theories are the most promising theories for unified description of all fundamental interactions including gravity. However, these theories are formulated consistently only in 10 spacetime dimensions. Therefore, to connect to…
We investigate three proposals of distance on the moduli space of metrics: (1) a distance derived from the symplectic form of phase space, (2) a distance obtained by moving BPS objects at small velocity, (3a) a distance proposed by DeWitt…
We study the compactification of the $(2,0)$ and type-II little-string theories on $S^1$, $T^2$ and $T^3$ with an R-symmetry twist that preserves half the supersymmetry. We argue that it produces the same moduli spaces of vacua as…
We study cosmological implications of the duality ($PSL(2,{\bf Z})$) invariant potential for the compactification radius $T$, arising in a class of superstring vacua. We show that in spite of having only one minimum in the fundamental…
In any consistent effective field theory of quantum gravity limits of infinite field distance are expected to lead to the EFT breakdown due to the appearance of an infinite tower of light states, as predicted by the Distance Conjecture. We…
String theory has been claimed to give rise to natural fuzzy dark matter candidates in the form of ultralight axions. In this paper we revisit this claim by a detailed study of how moduli stabilisation affects the masses and decay constants…
Superstring theories are very promising theoretically, but the enormous landscape of string vacua and the (likely) very large underlying string scale imply that they may never be tested directly. Nevertheless, concrete constructions…
The breakdown of gravitational effective field theories is intimately connected to the emergence of infinite towers of light states near infinite-distance limits in field space. In string theory, up to duality frame, such towers arise from…
We test the refined distance conjecture in the vector multiplet moduli space of 4D $\mathcal{N}=2$ compactifications of the type IIA string that admit a dual heterotic description. In the weakly coupled regime of the heterotic string, the…